Buonzawl

Century back, Buonzawl was a noteworthy traditional social institution among some of the indigenous Zo kindred communities in Northeast India. Buonzawl in Hmar dialect means Bachelor’s Dormitory. The term itself is a combination of two words – Buon (wrestle) and Zawl (flat surface). In Mizoram and some of its adjacent areas, it is known as Zawlbuk.

Before its abolition, a prevalent Buonzawl served as an institution for imparting social education to the bachelors of the villages. Buonzawl also trains them in the art of warfare. It was also used as a recreation arena for wrestling, singing and dancing, acts as an administrative centre for village issues and activities, used as a rest house for travelers, a place to infuse social values and discipline to the youth, and most importantly teaching the youth – the unique code for an unconditional selfless ethics – tlawmngaina.

Traditionally, Buonzawl were built at the centre of the villages near the Village Chief’s house. It was obligatory for all the male youth of a village who attained puberty to sleep at this dormitory. Buonzawl also act as a defense centre for collective action in times of external dangers and emergencies. With the emergence of Christianity and introduction of formal education to the indigenous communities, Buonzawl gradually became insignificant and was abolished from their traditional social system.

This bulletin, taking its name after this significant traditional social institution, intends to contemporarily revive the Buonzawl by following its ideals and values to impart not only the youth but also the general masses of the range of issues confronting them.

As the absence of any issue-based bulletin is itself a challenging issue, this Buonzawl plans to fill-up the void by raising and wrestling various themes pertaining to development, society, education, environment, culture, history, literature, human rights, women issues, religion, language, economy, politics and other public interest issues of the indigenous Zo communities in NE India. It intends to act as a platform for the exchange of ideas and opinions on multi-layered challenges faced by the Zo kindred communities.